With the help of enterprising fans and a lot of workarounds, dedicated fans of Black Desert can do their best to muddle through the game's Korean beta if they don't read or understand Korean. Understanding the game's setting, however, is another matter entirely. But the fandom is still trying to translate and make the best of it, and now the game's first major lore article has been translated, covering some 50 years of history for the city Calpheon. In short, a plague rampaged through the city, and what started was a long campaign of war against the desert nation blamed for the contagion. This was followed by more wars, trades, magical artifacts, and... well, you get the idea. You can read the whole article to get a better sense of the world's history, whether you're trying to figure out how to interact with the game when you don't read the native language or just watching from afar. [Thanks to Irene-24 for the tip!]...

Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen. We've been waiting for it for a very long time, but you can indeed play the game now. WildStar is no longer a vague promise of what might be in the future, it has well and truly launched, and it's inherited all of the launch issues that come along with every single MMO launch, along with an assortment of people certain that we've never seen anything like this before. Hey, guess what I'll be talking about with today's column. I haven't had nearly as much time in the headstart as I would have liked at this point, largely due to the dread specter of Real Life minimizing my free time between launch on Saturday and when this column is being written (which is not five minutes prior to posting, if you were curious). But I've got some impressions just the same, and whilst I don't think they really qualify for first impression status, you came here to read about WildStar's launch, and that's just what I want to talk about. Continue reading The...

May has finally come to an end, and The Repopulation comes ever closer to release with a larger pool of testers on both weekends and a regular basis. It also means that more big changes have been rolled out to the game, starting with Ability Enhancements. These slotted tricks fit into abilities similar to item fittings, with a variety of different enhancements available to improve a character's skills. The enhancement slots are limited, however, which forces players to think about how they want to specialize their characters. Combat has also received a major tuning tweak, with a new off-hand option for those who'd prefer not to dual-wield melee weapons and a number of improved abilities. The refined combat system includes new openings and counter-attack support, which makes the system play nicer in a group setting. You can see the full patch notes and read more details on the official site. [Thanks to J.C. Smith for the tip!]...

Carbine executive producer Jeremy Gaffney is interviewed over at Gamasutra, and he has plenty of interesting things to say regarding the MMO industry and WildStar's place in it. Particularly illuminating is Gaffney's philosophy regarding progression and the journey versus the destination.

If there is a fun thing to do that is inefficient and a horribly boring thing like smacking yourself in the face with a shovel next to it that gives more XP, players will do more XP. They'll try the fun thing once or twice but then go, 'No, I can't help it. I need to hit level 50. I want my end goal more than I want my journey.' So it's very easy to have the journey trivialized. Achievement is the love of watching bars grow -- that's our industry. I don't think there's a more fundamental human need that gets tapped into by these games than watching your bars advance, and that feeling of...​

Guild Software announced over the weekend that its long-running Vendetta Online MMORPG will explore microtransactions on certain mobile devices. Vendetta, a space sim sandbox that offers single-shard gameplay across operating systems including Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, and iOS, has been running since April of 2002 and has heretofore subsisted on the subscription model. Guild says that subscribers "will still get everything, across all platforms, without any need for these types of optional purchases." Microtransactions will be exclusively for Vendetta pilots on Lite accounts, and the structure of the cash shop will "require refinement and continued feedback from the userbase." Guild concludes that a hybrid business model is "an expected necessity on mobile," and it is working to adapt and court additional players....

I did my due diligence and tried WildStar this weekend. I pretty much knew the game wasn't for me prior to logging in, but given my job and given a press account, yeah. I needed to test that hypothesis. I don't know if I'm just getting old or what, but the kindest thing I can say about WildStar is that it's over-caffeinated. I mean, come on. When an NPC looks at you and screams "HOLY SH*T, YOU LEVELED UP!" while virtual sci-fi confetti explodes all over your screen, it sets a certain tone. What about you, Massively readers? Do any particular MMOs make you feel old? Also, my lawn. Off it.

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/>Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on...

Every one of us has an "MMO resume": a list of titles that we've played, whether briefly or extensively. Some of those are just games, casual flings that meant nothing. But others can take a more meaningful role in our lives, influencing how we experience and view MMOs. I would scarcely say that my resume is one of the most robust you'll ever see; I'm sure plenty of you have played more than I. However, I like to think that I've had a journey over the course of a decade or so that's shaped who I am as a gamer. Since it's my birthday today, I'm going to share 10 of those influential MMOs with you and what they've done for me. You're going to get me cake....

The Perpetuum team released a new dev blog this week, the better to remind players of where the sci-fi sandbox stands after its payment model switch and its Steam launch. The post says that the game's average player count is nearly five times higher than it was before, and that's with a Steam Early Access tag scaring people away. The blog doesn't disclose financial details, but it does say that the game is succeeding. "After months (years?) of worrying about what to put on your plate tomorrow, it's a liberating feeling to have that off of the list of things to worry about, and being able to just focus on making the game better," the post explains. With that in mind, it's time to delve into improvements. Those mentioned include a gamma revamp, quality-of-life upgrades, an assignment system revamp, and more! [Thanks Zoltan!]